Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
50th Report - Local bus services in England
Published 29 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Local bus services in England All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We were concerned the Department was being complacent about the significant level of financial risk for individual local transport authorities if they opt for franchising. The Department told us that some of the transition costs in Greater Manchester would have been spent anyway to keep supported services running. But the Department also acknowledged there are financial risks and that mayoral combined authorities are likely to be better equipped to undertake franchising.40 The Department also agreed that full franchising would not work for many local areas. It is piloting different franchising models with varying levels of cost, skills requirements 38 C&AG’s report, paras 3.3-3.4, Figure 11 39 Transport for Greater Manchester (LBS0021) 40 Qq 58, 61-62 13 and financial risks, depending on which assets are acquired by the local transport authority. Other models include joint ventures with operators or franchising just one region of a bus network.41
From: Public Accounts Committee, 50th Report - Local bus services in England (HC 892), 29 October 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 29 December 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees" with each of the Committee's recommendations, while saying it does not think it would be appropriate to set quantitative targets for national outcomes.
- On the vision for buses, the department intends to publish a summary of its vision and intended outcomes "in the next few months", but does not think quantitative national targets would be appropriate because they "would prejudge local choices and trade-offs".
- On funding, the Local Authority Bus Grant began consolidating funding in 2025-26; the Bus Services Fund is not ring-fenced, but funding letters will set an expectation that it is spent on eligible bus schemes, otherwise it "could be clawed back or reduced in future".
- On performance, the department gives a target implementation date of December 2026 for its outcomes framework and says it has been testing a basket of indicators with authorities through a 'Bus Indicator Pilot'.
- On concessionary travel, the department "will write to the Committee" within six months on barriers facing elderly and disabled passengers, with details of its plans to address them.